The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) is an international federation of independent national professional associations of anaesthesiologists. The WFSA's Secretariat is based in London, UK.
The WFSA is the foremost global alliance of anaesthesiologists, and through a federation of 135 Member Societies,[1] unites anaesthesiologists from 145 countries around the world to improve patient care and access to safe anaesthesia and perioperative medicine. Every two years the WFSA and a Member Society host the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists, in 2024 the Congress was held in Singapore and WCA 2026 will be held in Morocco. with the current meeting (delayed from 2020 due to COVID) being held in Prague in 2021, and the next meeting scheduled for Singapore in 2024.[2]
The WFSA is a Non-State Actor in Official Liaison with the World Health Organization (WHO) and has consultative status with UN-ECOSOC.[3] The WFSA is founding member of the G4 Alliance, and a founder and supporter of Lifebox.[4]
In 2018, the WFSA published the WHO-WFSA International Standards for a Safe Practice of Anesthesia alongside the WHO for the first time, published jointly in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and Anesthesia & Analgesia.[5] These Standards are applicable to all anaesthesia providers throughout the world. They are intended to provide guidance and assistance to anaesthesia providers, their professional organisations, hospital and facility administrators, and governments for maintaining and improving the quality and safety of anaesthesia care.[5]
The WFSA Global Anesthesia Workforce Survey, published in September 2017 in Anesthesia & Analgesia, was a workforce survey conducted during 2015 and 2016. The aim of the survey was to collect detailed information on physician anaesthesia provider (PAP) and non-physician anaesthesia provider (NPAP) numbers, distribution, and training. Seventy-seven countries reported a PAP density of <5, with particularly low densities in the African and South-East Asia regions. NPAPs make up a large part of the global anaesthesia workforce, especially in countries with limited resources. Even when NPAPs are included, 70 countries had a total anaesthesia provider density of <5 per 100,000. Using current population data, over 136,000 additional PAPs would be needed immediately to achieve a minimum density of 5 per 100,000 population in all countries.[6] Following the publication of the Survey, the WFSA published an easy-to-use WFSA Workforce Map on their website, an ongoing open source project to map the global anaesthesia workforce.[7]
The WFSA publishes the peer reviewed Anaesthesia Tutorial of the Week every two weeks, which is an online open access educational resource with the aim of supporting anaesthesia training throughout the world, particularly in areas where access to journals and learning material is limited.[8] The WFSA's official academic journal is Update in Anaesthesia.[9]
The WFSA offers Fellowship Training Programmes for young anaesthetists from low income countries around the world. Currently there are 52 Fellowships across Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Pan-Arab, and North America. The WFSA also offers Scholarships for young anaesthetists on low incomes and working in less affluent countries to attend WFSA World and Regional Congresses.
The WFSA delivers courses and training programmes to strengthen the global capacity for safe anaesthesia and pain management. These training programmes include Safer Anaesthesia From Education (SAFE) Courses, developed by the WFSA and the Association of Anaesthetists (AAGBI),[10] and Essential Pain Management.
The WFSA co-ordinates the Palestinian Anaesthesia Teaching Mission (PATM) which enables volunteers to provide targeted teaching to anaesthesiologists and clinicians across hospitals in Palestine.[11] The WFSA is partnered with the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) to offer qualified anaesthetists/intensivists from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi and Nepal, who are in good standing with their National Society, the opportunity to enhance their skills and knowledge in the UK through the RCoA's Medical Training Initiative (MTI) scheme.[12]
Anesthesia or anaesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia, paralysis, amnesia, and unconsciousness. An individual under the effects of anesthetic drugs is referred to as being anesthetized.
Local anesthesia is any technique to induce the absence of sensation in a specific part of the body, generally for the aim of inducing local analgesia, i.e. local insensitivity to pain, although other local senses may be affected as well. It allows patients to undergo surgical and dental procedures with reduced pain and distress. In many situations, such as cesarean section, it is safer and therefore superior to general anesthesia.
General anaesthesia (UK) or general anesthesia (US) is a method of medically inducing loss of consciousness that renders a patient unarousable even with painful stimuli. This effect is achieved by administering either intravenous or inhalational general anaesthetic medications, which often act in combination with an analgesic and neuromuscular blocking agent. Spontaneous ventilation is often inadequate during the procedure and intervention is often necessary to protect the airway. General anaesthesia is generally performed in an operating theater to allow surgical procedures that would otherwise be intolerably painful for a patient, or in an intensive care unit or emergency department to facilitate endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation in critically ill patients. Depending on the procedure, general anaesthesia may be optional or required. Regardless of whether a patient may prefer to be unconscious or not, certain pain stimuli could result in involuntary responses from the patient that may make an operation extremely difficult. Thus, for many procedures, general anaesthesia is required from a practical perspective.
Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, and pain medicine. A physician specialized in anesthesiology is called an anesthesiologist, anaesthesiologist, or anaesthetist, depending on the country. In some countries, the terms are synonymous, while in other countries, they refer to different positions and anesthetist is only used for non-physicians, such as nurse anesthetists.
Spinal anaesthesia, also called spinal block, subarachnoid block, intradural block and intrathecal block, is a form of neuraxial regional anaesthesia involving the injection of a local anaesthetic or opioid into the subarachnoid space, generally through a fine needle, usually 9 cm (3.5 in) long. It is a safe and effective form of anesthesia usually performed by anesthesiologists that can be used as an alternative to general anesthesia commonly in surgeries involving the lower extremities and surgeries below the umbilicus. The local anesthetic with or without an opioid injected into the cerebrospinal fluid provides locoregional anaesthesia: true anaesthesia, motor, sensory and autonomic (sympathetic) blockade. Administering analgesics in the cerebrospinal fluid without a local anaesthetic produces locoregional analgesia: markedly reduced pain sensation, some autonomic blockade, but no sensory or motor block. Locoregional analgesia, due to mainly the absence of motor and sympathetic block may be preferred over locoregional anaesthesia in some postoperative care settings. The tip of the spinal needle has a point or small bevel. Recently, pencil point needles have been made available.
The Association of Anaesthetists, in full the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), is a professional association for anaesthetists in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Methoxyflurane, sold under the brand name Penthrox among others, is an inhaled medication primarily used to reduce pain following trauma. It may also be used for short episodes of pain as a result of medical procedures. Onset of pain relief is rapid and of a short duration. Use is only recommended with direct medical supervision.
Harold Randall Griffith was a Canadian anesthesiologist and a leader in the fields of anesthesiology.
The International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) is an international, professional medical society dedicated to improving clinical care, education and research in anesthesia, pain management, and perioperative medicine. It was founded in 1922 by Francis Hoeffer McMechan.
Sachithanandan Thambinathan, better known as T. Sachithanandan, was a Malaysian anaesthesiologist.
World Anesthesia Day or World Anaesthesia Day, also known in some countries as National Anaesthesia Day or Ether Day, is an annual event celebrated around the world on 16 October to commemorate the first successful demonstration of diethyl ether anesthesia by William T. G. Morton on 16 October 1846.
Peter Kranke is anesthetist and professor of anesthesiology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Kranke is known for the design and conduct of clinical studies and for performing systematic reviews in the context of perioperative medicine. He published numerous papers on research focussed on evidence-based medicine and interventional and observational trials on postoperative nausea and vomiting and other issues in conjunction with perioperative medicine and associated topics including patient blood management. The area of his clinical responsibility and interest, among others, is the safe provision of anesthesia and analgesia in obstetrics and gynecology.
Kathryn Ann Kelly "Kelly" McQueen is an American anesthesiologist and global health expert. She currently practices anesthesiology at the UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin and serves as the chair for the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public health.
In the United Kingdom, an anaesthesia associate (AA) is a healthcare worker who provides anaesthesia under the medical direction and supervision of a consultant anaesthetist. Anaesthesia associates are not doctors themselves, but rather enter the role by completing a 27-month full-time training programme which leads to the award of a postgraduate diploma, or alternatively a 24-month training programme via University College London leading to a master's degree. The University of Birmingham, University College London and Lancaster University deliver General Medical Council approved courses to qualify and register as an AA. It is classed as a medical associate profession. To be eligible, a candidate must have a previous degree in a biomedical or science subject, or recognised previous healthcare experience in another role. There is usually high demand for posts when advertised, with high application to places ratios. Recruitment is usually undertaken directly by the NHS employer, before enrolling with on a chosen course.
The Mongolian Society of Anesthesiologists is a medical association in Mongolia.
Balanced anesthesia, also known as multimodal anesthesia, is a technique used to induce and maintain anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery or certain medical procedures. This method employs a combination of anesthetic agents and other drugs – and techniques – to selectively target various aspects of the central nervous system, allowing for a tailored anesthetic experience based on the individual patient's needs and the specific requirements of the procedure.
The Lifebox Foundation, commonly known as Lifebox, is a non-profit organization that improves the safety of surgery in low-income countries.
Isabella Epiu is an anesthesiologist and critical care medicine specialist in Uganda, who is reported to be the first female anesthesiologist in the countries of the East African Community, to graduate with a Doctor of Philosophy degree. In 2023, she graduated from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia with a PhD in Medicine, specializing in neuro-respiratory physiology and health economics.
Amanda Baric is an Australian anaesthesiologist. She has been key to the Australian collaboration with Mongolia to develop training courses for anaesthesiologists for which work, she was awarded the Order of the Polar Star of Mongolia. This work has also extended to Myanmar.
Katherine Leslie is an Australian anaesthetist, medical practitioner, and medical researcher. She is head of research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). Leslie was the first anaesthetist to be honoured with a Doctor of Medical Science by the University of Melbourne in 2017.
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